Pages

On Early Tropes, Castle Greyhawk

"The first level was a simple maze of rooms and corridors, for none of the participants had ever played such a game before.
"The second level had two unusual items, a Nixie Pool and a fountain of snakes.
"The third featured a torture chamber and many small cells and prison rooms.
"The forth (sic) was a level of crypts and undead.
"The fifth was centered around a strange font of black fire and gargoyles.
"The sixth was a repeating maze with dozens of wild hogs (3 dice) in inconvinient (sic) spots, naturally backed up by appropriate numbers of Wereboars.
"The seventh was centered around a circular labyrinth and a street of masses of ogres.
"The eighth through tenth levels were caves and caverns featuring Trolls, giant insects, and a transporter nexus with an evil wizard (with a number of tough associates guarding it.
"The eleventh level was the home of the most powerful wizard in the castle. He had Balrogs as servants. The remainder of the level was populated by Martian White Apes, except the sub-passage system underneath the corridores (sic)which was full of poisonous critters with no treasure.
"Level twelve was filled with Dragons.
"The bottom level, number thirteen, contained an iescapable (sic) slide which took the players 'clear through to China', from whence they had to return via 'Outdoor Adventure'. It was quite possible to hourney (sic) downward to the bottom level by an insidious series of slanting passages which began on the second level, but the liklihood (sic) of following such a route unknowingly didn't become too great until the seventh or eighth level. Of the dozen or so who played on a fairly regular basis, four made the lowest level and took the trip. . .
"Side levels included a barracks with Orcs, Hobgoblins, and Gnolls continually warring with eachother, (sic)a museum, a huge arena, an underground lake, a Giant's home, and a garden of fungi." - Gygax, April 1975

Very interesting stuff. Gygax himself of course evolved, along with everyone else. Over at CRPGAddict pretty much all the early computer RPGs involve the (unexplained) many-leveled dungeon with monsters and traps.

About the hogs, as a farmer I can assure you that hogs will eat pretty much anything organic up to their own size, bones and all, with the exception of the skulls and feet. I figure the pig level was a sewer-offal pit for the first several levels of the dungeon. Did gelatinous cubes exist yet?